Mobile charge capture comes to athenahealth platform

Athenahealth announced today it is embedding HybridChart's mobile charge capture capabilities into athenaOne to enable real-time revenue capture for physicians rounding at hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.

Mobile charge capture will be an add-on feature for athenaOne, the announcement stated, which will extend the platform for users.

The capability is offered by athenahealth through an alliance partnership with HybridChart, which signifies a high level of strategic and technical integration within the athenahealth Marketplace.

Mobile charge capture aims to enable clinicians to document professional charges in real time while rounding across different facilities, such as hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.

How clinicians perform charge capture during rounding depends on their organization's technology tier. However, many organizations still rely on paper systems in which clinicians document and code after a patient encounter, then hand the records over to back-office billing staff for charge capture.

Point-of-care charge capture has become more popular as mobile capabilities have emerged from third-party vendors and as integrated EHR system functions have expanded. This method has addressed the historic "black box" problem of tracking charges during hospital rounding, reducing the risk of revenue leakage and claim denials.

A leading vendor in the mobile charge capture market, HybridChart has already offered these capabilities to athenahealth customers through its application marketplace. The announcement said almost 70 customers currently use the application to support rounding workflows and charge capture across several specialties, including cardiology, orthopedics, gastroenterology, neurology, nephrology and surgery.

The capability will now be integrated into the athenaOne platform as the company seeks to address growing financial pressure on practices.

"Care is delivered in real time, but revenue capture often depends on documentation that happens later," Michael Palantoni, chief strategy and corporate development officer at athenahealth, said in the announcement. "That disconnect -- which we're helping to address -- creates risk for practices and complexity for clinicians."

The new capability also seeks to improve ambulatory financial performance, with HybridChart touting average revenue gains of 8-10% when its customers transitioned from paper-based charge capture to a point-of-care approach.

However, the promised revenue gains will likely depend on factors beyond the technology itself, including billing staff training, the maturity of existing revenue cycle processes and physician adoption rates -- a top challenge of implementing this approach.

Still, the move to mobile charge capture signals a recognition that revenue cycle optimization has become a critical differentiator in a highly competitive EHR market. Leading vendors like Epic and Cerner have integrated charge capture capabilities into their systems, which serve more hospitals and health systems.

The latest integration from athenahealth fits a growing demand for more integrated clinical and financial workflows to address the macroeconomic pressure on operating margins and a massive shift toward AI automation.

Jacqueline LaPointe is an Executive Editor at Xtelligent Healthcare Media, covering revenue cycle management, healthcare payers, health policy and health IT since 2016.